Celebrating the Fourth of July with family and friends

I think I have created a fishing machine. My wife, Susan, is really catching the bass lately and she’s pretty happy about it as you can tell in the picture.

Last week was vacation at Kerr Lake for her. I spent much of it with her besides a few days at work. And we enjoyed our time with family and friends.

The annual fireworks display Saturday night at Satterwhite Point was great and I enjoyed meeting people while handing out Carolina Country Snacks Pork Skins as I idled from boat to boat.

On the Fourth of July, we had a good sized group over for a cookout of cheeseburgers, hot dogs, beans, chips, brownies, peanut butter delight (thanks cousin Twyla) and homemade chocolate ice cream.

My dad, Johnny, was there along with his brothers, James and Wayland, and their sister, Aunt Mary, and her daughter, Twyla. James’ son, Gary, and two of his children were there. Cindy Hunt and two of her children, Landon, and Tiffany were there along with Tiffany’s boyfriend, Genie Roberson.

Our eldest daughter, Claire, our son, Jimmie, and his son, John II, came and John spent a few days with us. Everybody enjoyed loading up on the traditional Independence Day fare.

Mike Breedlove reports he and his friends have been catching limits of stripers on most every trip out on Kerr recently. I also caught a few nice ones last weekend while bass fishing with deep diving crankbaits.

Susan and I ate fried fresh rock fish, new potatoes from our neighbor Wayne’s garden, slaw, and a fresh slice of loaf bread slathered with butter for supper last Sunday night.

Susan fixed the taters like her Aunt Faye Parham makes. Boiled down with butter, and Susan added a little powdered red pepper. Herbert Lloyd from Bearpond and the Breedloves from Watkins Community would have been proud to serve this spread back in the early 1970s at the old Bearpond firehouse.

Fish are hanging out from Henderson Point to the Kerr Lake dam. Mike reported catching 12 Sunday morning with most weighing 4 to 5 pounds and one 12-pounder.

Upcoming area tournaments — I don’t know of any tournaments next weekend on Kerr Lake so I am heading to Lake Champlain on the Vermont/New York/ Canada border to compete against some pros in the FLW Everstart tournament there.

Next week’s report — Brief report from Lake Champlain with more to come the week after.

Tip of the week — Take a vacation every once in a while. Life’s too short to work all the time, and besides, you can’t take all that money with you.

Contact the writer by email at waltbowen@yahoo.com, on Facebook under Walt Bowen, and on twitter at @WaltBowen.